


Marionette

by rainbow_salt



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Control, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Manipulation, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28392504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbow_salt/pseuds/rainbow_salt
Summary: “Bending is evil, bending is dangerous.”This is the only thing Korra heard for her entire life growing up in the Equalist hideout, after being taken from her parents at four years old, by the masked leader of the Equalist revolution.But as she grows up, she is starting to think that Amon might be wrong.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 10





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came to me very suddenly after I finished watching TLOK book one for the first time. The inspiration behind it came from a Phantom of the Opera/Amorra video I saw on Youtube, specifically the line “I am the mask you wear/It’s me they hear”. But this story is not an Amorra one (though I am considering writing one in the future, I don’t know if there is anyone left that ship it but still).
> 
> Anyways, here is the prologue. I hope you enjoy it!

Four years.

It had been four years since the death of city’s beloved Avatar Aang. Four years since Amon started his search for the new one. Four years, and still, he was nowhere close to find her.

He knew she would be born into one of the Water Tribes, and he had been intercepting the messages sent to White Lotus that claimed their child was the Avatar. But all of them had turned out to be false so far.

“Where are you, Avatar?” He muttered to himself in the dark, his voice coming out muffled because of the mask that covered his face.

He was running out of time, he had to get his hands on her while she was still young. The sooner he found her the better.

“Amon!” There was a quick knock on the door before it opened wide, before he even had a chance to give permission.

“Didn’t I tell you to not enter without—“ His words were cut off by the man in front off him, sounding breathless almost as if he ran the entire way here.

“I didn’t mean to intrude. But it is important.” He took a deep breath as Amon squinted his eyes under his mask. “We’ve got another information about the whereabouts of the Avatar, we’ve found that it’s located in the South Pole.”

He waited for a few seconds to give his leader time to process the information.

“Amon, I think this time we found her.”


	2. The Avatar Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amon and the Equalists find the four year old Korra in her home in the South Pole.

It was a small house in the South, far smaller than what he would expect the girl who was destined to be the great Avatar to live in. Still, they had managed to find it fairly easily. Now all that was left was to go in and retrieve the girl, which seemed far easier than the actual process of finding her identity.

The biting cold and the heavy snowfall made their visions blurry and steps slower, but he was used to the harsh conditions of the poles. It was his men that struggled more with walking on the deep snow.

It was the middle of the night, every reasonable person should have been asleep by now. But he knew he should never get too relaxed.

Once they finally reached the house, he commanded two of his Equalists to break down the door with a simple flick of his hand. It was for the best that they kept the noise to the bare minumum.

As two men knocked the door down, there was a loud crash sound. They had to act quick, it was a matter of time until the girl’s parents would come to investigate the source of the noise.

Two other Equalists and their leader rushed inside after the first two men, Amon motioning them to go to the parents’ bedroom while he took a turn towards the smaller doorway.

_ Finally, we are about to meet, Avatar. _

...

The little girl jumped up with the sudden loud noise, waking up from a sweet dream. It had sounded like someone or something had just fallen.

“Mom? Dad?” She called out, but it was to no avail. No response came, only the sounds of quick footsteps of what felt like multiple people in their living room.

The four year old could feel the horror rising up inside her, but quickly tried to push it aside.

_I’m the Avatar_ ,  she thought to herself, trying to regain some of her confidence.  _ I can take on whoever. _

The sound of what she could only describe as crackling electricity was heard from her parents’ room along with a small scream, and her newly found confidence faltered. Was her parents alright?

“Mom?” She called out once again, conjuring a ball of flames in her tiny hand, ready to fight. “Dad?”

As no response came once again, her eyes were filled with tears. She had a feeling in her stomach that told her something horrible had just happened.

But she quickly wiped away the tears as she saw a shadow behind the curtain that separated her room from the rest of the house. Whoever that was, she was determined to not give them the pleasure of seeing her cry.

The curtain moved, and her heart leapt in her chest. Avatar or no Avatar, she had never actually fought anyone before.

Without thinking, she threw the fireball at the man who had just entered through the doorway. But he dodged it by simply moving to the side.

Not letting her disappointment and fear show, she stomped on the ground, sending a rock, not as big as she would have liked it to be, flying over his way. Another attack he easily avoided.

Korra took a few steps back, the fear returning stronger than before as she looked at the man’s face, or lack thereof.

Where his face was supposed to be, there was a creepy mask, emotionless and flat. The only thing that differentiated him from a statue was his eyes that could be seen through the slits of the mask, glinting under the moonlight that entered the room through the window.

“Get away from me!” The little girl yelled, trying to keep her voice from trembling. “Or you’ll regret it!” Empty words of threat which only earned an amused chuckle from the masked stranger.

...

He would be lying if he said he had expected her to know how to bend fire and earth already. She was by no means a master, her attacks endearing if anything, but it had taken him by suprise.

Still, as he approached her, he held out his hands in front of him to show he meant no harm. He could sense the girl’s fear. Heart beating as if was going to escape her chest, blood running fast in her veins.

“Calm down.” He said, voice coming out reassuring. “I am not here to hurt you.”

“You are not?” Confusion was evident on the young Avatar’s face.

“No. I am here to save you.” He kneeled down on the floor to match her height, taking notice that her heart was starting to beat just a little slower. “You are coming with me.”

With that, the Avatar’s body tensed up again, backing away from him. “No! I am not going anywhere!” She resisted, tears filling her eyes once more. “Not with a creepy man like you!”

“Look,” He sighed, forcing himself to be patient and not threatening. “This is for your own good. You cannot stay here.”

“And why’s that?” She questioned, her back completely against the wall now, as her eyes darted through the dark room, avoiding making eye contact with the him. “I won’t leave my parents.”

“Your parents...” He trailed off, putting a hand that was meant to be reassuring on the small girl’s shoulder, but she just flinched, recoiling at his touch. “I am so sorry to be the one to give the bad news, but they are gone.”

“G-gone?” Her voice trembled. “You are lying! They would never leave me!”

“They didn’t. Not by choice. They fought heroically to save their daughter.” Of course that wasn’t what had happened, they were chi-blocked and electricuted without having a chance to fight back. But he would allow her this comforting lie. 

“We tried to save them, but it was too late...”

...

Korra felt her entire world crashing down on her.  _Her mother and her father, they were..._ She couldn’t even bring herself to think of the word. Tears fell freely from her eyes this time, with no attempt to hold them back.

Being a four year old, she didn’t have a profound understanding of death. All she knew was that she would never see them again. She was all alone in this world. The thought made her little heart shatter into a million pieces in her chest.

The masked man had said they had tried to save her parents. Who were  _they_?  Why were they here in the first place? Who had killed her parents? If he was telling the truth, what choice she had other than trusting this scary stranger?

So many questions swam in her head, it made feel like her head was going to explode. She fell on the ground, burying her head in her knees as she cried.

She was pulled back to reality when she heard the muffled voice behind the mask. “We must hurry. The people that were after you could come back.”

Korra lifted her head, teary eyes filled with confusion. “Me?” She asked. “W-what do you mean?”

The masked stranger sighed. “Those men that your parents fought with were looking for the Avatar.” He explained calmly. “Looking for  _ you _ .”

Guilt settled in her chest at the shocking revelation. They were after  _her_ ,  her parents were dead because of _her_. She had never seen being the Avatar as a negative thing before, but it had brought destruction to her family.

“H-how do you know I am the Avatar?” She asked, slightest bit of suspicion creeping into her voice. She had never seen this man before, how could he know who she was?

“I heard those men talking about it before we chased them away. Me and my men managed to scare them away before they could get to you.”

“B-but who are you? Who were those men? Why were you here?” The questions came spilling out of her mouth, unrestrained.

“I will explain everything in time.” The response that came was calm and collected. “But we have to get out of here first.”

With these words, he easily lifted her up from the ground, slinging her over his shoulder.

Despite having no other choice but to go with him, something inside her told her to resist.

“Stop!” She thrashed and kicked, hitting his back with tiny fists. “I don’t want to leave! Where are you taking me?”

Everything was becoming too real now that she was being carried away from her home, the only place she knew in her entire life. The place she had many happy memories in. The place in where she once lived with her mother and father.

“Somewhere you will be safe, Avatar.”


End file.
